that does it for this two-hour of "360." our coverage continues with 9 hello, i am broke baldwin. i want to welcome our viewers all around the world as we continue all my long. i am here with you, special live coverage of the blizzard pounding much of the northeast and new england and the problems are beginning to pile up. take a look at some of these pictures. a state of emergency blankets massachusetts along with a layer of snow back to top two feet in some areas. high wind gusts have toppled trees, causing widespread power outages. when they huge concern here in the overnight hours. and across the region, more than half a million homes and businesses have no power. in new york, the worst of the storm is hitting in these hours.

here to a state of emergency is in place and rail service has been suspended all the way from manhattan. it snow has been stacking up as fast as three inches an hour. look at this. up to two feet of snow is predicted along with the winds possibly topping 60 miles an hour. as i mentioned, i am in the cnn weather cube or we're lifting the veil for you over the next five hour says we're taking this all my watching a snowstorm moved across the northeast. we are live throughout the night with continuous updates on the conditions. we'll have people describe what they're seeing and facing on the streets without power. we have reporters for you throughout this region. i want to begin with who we have. we have meteorologist andrew peterson in boston. ali velshi braving the wind on the cake, cape cod sound. in new york, we have allison and

chad myers working long hours right along with me tracking the storm from the 1%. i want to begin in boston. more than a foot and a half of snow has already fallen. look at these cars. absolutely covered. 70-mile an hour wind gusts could with props not address, six maybe seven feet deep. you're telling me at logan airport in boston, a 76-mile an hour winds. i want to get the latest from boston. i see there is no coming. tell me what it looks like where you are. >> little bit different than 24 hours ago. your releasing the heavy snow coming down, i am doing everything to look into the camera. these clear sunglasses i don't have. it is difficult. we're talking about snowfall rates anywhere from two inches an hour as high as four inches per hour. a lot of areas, still there is a

heavier bands going more inland. we'll now rollout the chance this could be record-breaking storm. we potentially have 30 inches on all is said and done. wonder how cold it is out here? we're talking temperatures dropping 19 degrees. we will and in the winds. gas at 76 miles an hour. here at logan, talking about a wind chill-1. but i am standing here to give you the information. next to me, tell me our names, come in. >> this is oliver. >> reporter: are you guys from boston? >> we are, actually. nice and close. >> reporter: but you guys doing here? >> is the first snowstorm so we thought the first blizzard for him, we would take him out. >> reporter: what are your thoughts so far? what are you thinking here?

>> i don't think it is worse. it is just terrible, i guess part. >> i felt the same that we got the day off from work. no one can complete. >> reporter: why complain, hang out in the freezing cold. to doesn't want to do this? >> time to go in. >> reporter: thanks. your map, too. thank you so much, appreciate it. that is a situation as you can see. these strong easterly winds, and it looks like we will have a long time to go. blizzard conditions are here. checking the visibility, and this is you probably can't even see. probably about less than a quarter of a mile, no question. i don't know if you can see the tower. yesterday perfectly clear. >> it looks like you are teary-eyed. because of all of the snow and

the wind. we appreciate you being out and with us here overnight. that poor dog, i am sure he was like i did not want to see my first blizzard, thank you very much. we'll come back to you and hopefully no one else will bring their puppy dogs out and about or babies as we saw a while ago. thank you to you and your crew. we want to get to cape cod. let's go to ali velshi, this is the easternmost point in massachusetts. taking a look at you, i can see the wind whipping, what are the conditions there? >> it is a lot worse. it has turned a lot worse in the last little while. of wins are strong and the snow as increase. bashar, icy snow. the lights went off about ten minutes ago. there is no light anywhere around me. the lights you are seeing large generators on our satellite truck which from time to time

loses its signal because it has a dish on the top. getting whipped around. the last i checked we had sustained winds of 40 miles an hour. gusting about 60. definitely getting higher than 60 right now. you can see the surf behind it. it is roughed up a little bit but we are off high tide. we are probably about 15 feet short of where we were an hour ago. these winds are sustained higher than they have been for a few hours. this is just turned in the last 20 minutes. much higher winds, much more precipitation. much more blowing and the lights are out. taking a look around, no lights on. we saw a transformer blew up and it didn't seem to have much effect. we talked to people walking around and they said they lost power about an hour ago. now it is all gone dark. i thought it might be one of those things where it is just dark a few minutes. the power is out. we are halfway down the southern

coast of massachusetts. you've got to go 30 miles further east that way to get to the bottom right corner of cape cod. that is further out in the ocean. this is nantucket sound. martha's vineyard this way. south and boston is over there. we are going to have something worse right now than we had half an hour ago. i don't know whether this will go on for a little while but i have not seen this when for about two or three hours. it is stronger than it has been for a while. >> or if you saying earlier your ears have been popping because of this? >> say that again? >> you may not be able to hear me because of the land but because of all of this your ears have been popping up. is that to show had tremendous it is? >> that is interesting. at one point we felt our ears pop. as if you're going downhill or in a plane. and chad was describing that was

where these two weather systems causing this collided. they came together and you saw a precipitous drop in atmospheric pressure. if you have a broader on your mantel, you would have seen a drop. that indicated a change in the weather. this is an unusual personality over the last 12 hours because it was actually quite warm here. it came down as rain, not much accumulation. probably six inches, much less than in boston and providence. the velocity and the wind speed that is having an impact. the other thing is we are on the coast. in a flood zone in a flood warning area. we have not seen a surge. the tide has gone back. the sea is rough but we're not seeing flooding or surging just yet. we are seeing power outages. with this kind of wind and snow accumulation. particularly ahead with the what's know, clearly trees are down taking power lines down and

the water is having an impact on the transformers. power at this point on a cold night, just as i am talking to you, i am seeing lights going on. i am going to investigate that as soon as i can find out whether we have power back on. it might be coming back on. >> we will let you try to figure that out. thank you. we will check with you later. cape cod, massachusetts. we'll talk with chad, i know there have been tremendous concerns about coastal flooding. we will get to that but we have to talk new york. the blizzard has grounded the new york knicks basketball team, they had been scheduled to fly back home, back to new york city after tonight's game in minneapolis. they are stuck in minnesota tonight because of this blizzard. it is dumped already several inches of snow on the city. there is much more to come here before in the overnight hours. i want to go to ellison's

standing out there in manhattan. it looks a little calmer. it looks nice. >> reporter: you are looking at an impromptu snowball fight. started out with about ten people. the bars are getting out and

everyone is rushing down the street running through it. the plows broken up and the fire department broke it up and they were serenaded with snowballs as well. having a lot of fun as best they can. >> serenaded by snowballs. i see a car and i know you have been driving around. we were talking earlier, with the governor, deval patrick, in forcing a travel ban. you could not be on the roads after 4:00. what is the deal? why am i seeing cars? >> there are basically a few cars here and there but they are usually following emergency vehicle plows or people with plows of their own helping out. for the most part, other than vehicles like ours, i think people are not hitting the road. it is getting really bad. is pure white out conditions and we're taking it slow and being careful.

>> we are still looking at this snowball fight. it looks to be like two dozen people out as the bars are letting out and this will be interesting as we will be doing this overnight as more bars continue. having their own blizzard parties. when you are out there, talking to these people in boston, people in boston say it is a party bunch of people and they have been through blizzards before. is there a sense of panic? it doesn't appear that way. >> reporter: not a lot of panic. people were aware to be careful. in case the power went out. fresh on everyone's mind. people were ready to enjoy the snow, and clearly the ranks of boston university, boston college are very close and having no problems at all. >> i remember being in college with a huge blizzard and it was a lot of fun. thank you, we will check back in

with you. the roving producer on the streets of boston. we are and the nerve center of all things weather here at cnn. to bring in chad myers to talk about everything. beginning with the snowball fight, how much fun develop? >> it didn't look like a snowball fight. it looked like a baby powder fight. this no wouldn't packed together. it kind of exploded and that is what we have now. the snow will blow around so even though we will get 24 inches in boston before it stops, you'll never see that. it will be drafted against your car, on your door trying to get out. and then you have all of this stuff you can see, the big thrift, the winds. boston logan airport 76 and that was just in the past -- that was 10:47, an hour and a half ago. the low pressure is getting as close as it ever will to him and that is why the pressure going down and going out and that is

why he is feeling what he is. >> the ear popping, how bizarre is that? >> i didn't think it was odd except they all did it at the same time. agf four guys in the truck and they say i felt it, he said it was like 30 seconds apart, that is strange. like you're going down a roller-coaster. landing in an airplane. feeling your ears pop. that was the low pressure. >> you have been talking about the storm as a football game. we are in the third quarter. has the worst of it yet? >> the worst is over for new york city. the worst of the drafting is not over for boston. new haven has been in this defamation some where the storm is movingleft. and that newhaven, connecticut has been right in the same spot, on that snow band for hours. i can imagine it's already two feet. just a couple hours ago, it was inches. i-95 between boston and new york

city, it's just a mess. i tried to explain to these guys how you don't need to use your wipers during a snowstorm, but they didn't figure it out. if you don't have your defroster on the windshield and you have the heat on your feet, and you roll down the window so it doesn't steam up the car, the snow won't melt on your wind field. >> spoken like someone who knows the snow. >> you shouldn't have to use your wipers if it's this cold and this dry. but he's doing great stuff out there. >> he is. >> this is what i was worried about, he's been following police around all night long. he's been protected, knows where he's been. they know who he is and that's why they're letting him go without stopping him. about you if you get this much snow on the interstate and you can't move and the snow is blowing around you, that's where there's concern that people are going to perish in their cars. doesn't appear like we've had

any of that because people knew it was coming and they mayors and governors did a great job getting people off the roadway in time. >> they did. and we'll keep an eye on this. the winds are picking pup upon trees are starting to topple. we'll talk power. lights are on in boston, but someplaces, not so much. coming up, special coverage of in northeast blizzard right after this. it's not working! yes it is. welcome to tyco integrated security. with world-class monitoring centers and thousands of qualified technicians. we've got a personal passion to help your business run safer, smarter, and sharper. we are tyco integrated security. and we are sharper.

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more than life itself. i doubt anyone will even notice. leading the pack in motorcycle insurance. now, that's progressive. call or click today. aarrggh! >> it is 20 minutes past midnight and these are live pictures from our producer driving the streets of boston. you saw the snowball fight a moment ago. looks pretty from this vantage. what's not pretty, those of you who are sitting in the dark. those of you who do not have power. more than half a million people are in the dark as this blizzard has slammed the northeast. massachusetts is hardest hit by the power outages. more than 300,000 people do not have electricity. michael o'brian is the city manager of wooster, massachusetts.

do those numbers hold in terms of power outages for you? >> i'll tell you, brooke, we're lucky so far with our partners at national grid. we have very few people without power here in our community. but we know in massachusetts and some of the harder hit areas, particularly the coastline, they are without power. >> what is concern number one for you right now? >> concern number one is clearly the heavy snow coming down between one and three inches an hour. with that type of rate, it is all hands on deck to just try to keep the roads open, safe and passable. that is the high winds that we're experiencing and the blowing and drifting snow, and the threat of trees coming down, which could result in power outages. >> four people who don't have power, obviously they're not sitting and watching television right now. maybe they hear us on the radio, what is the best piece of advice for folks who are sitting there in the cold?

>> well, if they have access to a phone that works, that's not bundled with their cable service, to call in and let the national grid provider know they're without power. that's very important. also reaching out to our customer service center, letting them know that they are without power and any other issues that may be affects them at this time. and then with that kind of information, we're working hand in glove with the utilities, with our entire city team in our emergency operations center, working on plans to make sure we keep our community on its feet and address these issues as they arise. >> michael, since i have you, are you in wooster right now? tell me how conditions are right now where you are. >> i am in wooster at the emergency operations center. we're dealing right now with about a foot of snow, heavy snow falling, one to three inches an hour.

and considerable winds, ranging from 15 miles an hour to 30 miles an hour depending on where you are in the city. >> michael o'brian, we thank you for calling in. we know you and the folks you're working with may have a long 24 to 48 hours to come. thanks so much. some of what you're dealing with in the new england area, some people are having a little fun. we saw the snowball fight a moment ago. there was a woman at the doctor. here's a baby in a blizzard. we have some of that from ashley in connecticut. and also, hey, if there's snow, grab the skis. back after this. talking to an actual person.te you don't need to press "0," i'm here. reach a person, not a prompt whenever you call chase sapphire. why should saturday night have all the fun? get two times the points on dining in restaurants, with chase sapphire preferred.

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and we're back. we are here with you all night long until the 5:00 a.m. hour, covering this massive northeast blizzard. we've talked about boston and saw snowball fights. we talked about how you can't be driving according to the governor of massachusetts and governor of connecticut. speaking of connecticut, in times like these, people get creative in terms of transportation. we saw a woman earlier tonight talking to our correspondent in greenwich, connecticut. she was a doctor, had to get

home from work. what does she do? strapped on the skis. >> i got to ask you, what are you doing cross-country skiing? >> i'm a physician who always tells people they ought to be exercising on their way to work, so i skied to my office just now. >> you have got to be kidding! >> i kid you not, just up the street. >> you're from wisconsin, aren't you? >> i can call it. i don't want to stop you having your fun on your way. it was really lovely to watch. so have a good time. enjoy yourself and just be careful. come and meet little tiny savannah. why are you out walking with your baby? >> well, savannah is nine and a half months old and she's always looking for adventure, so we figure, why not? this is her first big snowstorm. we're excited. she loves nemo. >> and cooped up all day. >> she actually was at her boyfriend's place about 15 minutes ago. he's couple months younger than she is.

>> say hi to anderson cooper? >> hey, anderson. >> you guys get home. starting to really come down. take care. >>. >> so there you have a baby in a blizzard and a skier doctor heading home from work, it's just 12:30 in the morning. could get more interesting. look at these waves and really it's the wind that's the story. cape cod, massachusetts. if you know the area, this is dennis port, ali velshi there getting battered by the wind. we'll take you back there live to the cape when this special five-hour edition of the northeast blizzard continues after this. searching for a bank designed for investors like you? tdd#: 1-800-345-2550

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with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. >> back here live talking about the northeast blizzard, still very much coming down for so many of you in all the states of the northeast area. to boston to the thick of things. how cold is it? >> reporter: you know what, i

can't even tell you how many layers i have on. so i'm actually okay. we got the foot warmers, the hand warmers. i'm a california girl. we got to do what we got to do. i'm waiting for a strong gust. about an hour and a half ago, we have a 76 mile an hour gust at the airport, about a mile away. right now we're not seeing strong gusts. winds probably 30 to 40, but it doesn't feel that way where i'm standing. either way, we're talking about one to two inches an hour, hearing reports as high as four inches per hour. here's my yard stick. you know, wait, there we go. no, not getting anything exciting. but i thought it was a moment there. >> false alarm. >> so there's our yard stick. right now we're seeing probably it's under a foot. about 11 inches here. winds out of the northeast. we're not done any time soon,

wouldn't be surprised at the end of this, we could break the records. some of the bands are saying too are inland. some of the models saying a long way to go. we could break the record setback in 2003. keep checking visibility. getting harder to see this time around. that's less than a quarter mile away, that's where we look to see if we're having moderate or heavy snow right now. i can see it. pretty good. looks to me about a half a mile. so i would say moderate snowfall. i'm sure we'll get a gust and i won't be able to see that at all. >> grab some of that snow. is it light or thicker, heavier snow? snowball snow? >> with my mits i have on, i can't feel anything. but what's hitting my face, i

can feel well. it feels wet and light, kind of like wind. driven snow. it's going to be piling up quickly, but right now it doesn't seem, until we get the strong gusts, that we'll be seeing too much piling up here. but wet and cold, i'll give you that. >> okay, wet and cold, we'll take it. you're doing a fantastic job. we'll come to you later. but as we talk about the wind, we have to talk power again. jackie berry is on the line with me with the national grid power company in north bourg, massachusetts. what information do you have as far as outages? >> thank you for having me. >> sure. >> for your am to, i'm located about 30 or 40 miles west of where your reporter is in boston and i wish i had her anmom ter because the wind is absolutely howling out here. it's unbelievable. we actually serve a large chunk of massachusetts, not cape cod,

but parts of rhode island. we operate the system on long island for the long island power authority, and we have a big chunk of upstate new york. so the good news for upstate new york, is that we have no problems up there. on long island, there are approximately 13,000 customers without power. massachusetts, approximately 150,000 customers without power. and rhode island has about 170,000 customers without power right now. >> i have to ask you, how long do you think it will take, with all these trucks and teams at your disposal, how long will it take to get the power back on? >> it's a little early to make predictions because we're still at the height of the storm. but what i can tell you is that we have an army of crews here. we brought tons of extra crews in from outside. and we prestaged them around the service area where we suspected

that the hardest hit areas might be. and from what we've seen so far, it's been primarily along the coast, both in rhode island and massachusetts. so as soon as the winds die down tomorrow and it's safe to get out there, we will have an army of people hitting this really hard. it probably will be at least a couple of days before everybody has their power back. just because of the widespread and severe damage that the storm is causing. but we're on it and we'll be working on it until we get everybody back. >> okay, jackie berry, talking about this unbelievable howling winds. she's with the national grid in nor northborough, massachusetts. chad, i want you to tell me what you're learning.

>> the emergency manager of suffolk county says there are cars stranded on the lie and on the sunrise highway that they can't get to. snowmobiles have gone out to get those people out of their cars. i knew it was going to happen. this was my worst nightmare. good news is that most everybody knew to be inside. this is just not the time to drive around. once somebody slides around in front of you, even though it's a couple inches of snow, you don't realize that you can't go for a couple hours. that snow will pile up. so there you go. saturday, midnight, right now, that's the low. that's the reason why the winds are howling so badly in boston where ali velshi is on the cape. this is the closest approach that we're going to get to the u.s. unlike sandy that made the left-hand turn like this, this storm will turn right and head out to sea. but it will continue to push snow like this for the next at least ten hours into maine, new hampshire, parts of vermont, massachusetts, rhode island and connecticut. don't you like how i know all my states there?

>> a-plus. >> there goes the low. by 3:00, moving away from the cape, winds die down. snow still at about 10:00 in the morning tomorrow morning still blowing flurries, but other than that, over for new york city in the next three or four hours as that storm heads out to sea. >> take me back quickly to long island expressway. do we have any idea how many people? >> we do not. making phone calls right now. we got it confirmed that there were cars out there stranded and the snow was so deep. we not only have snow 20 inches deep, so it's going to take a snowmobile to get those people. not even a hummer at that point if it start to get packed down with drifts probably four to six feet with the winds are blowing 60 or 70. this is the fluffy white snow that blows around. it will be tough to people. we need you in your houses and we hope that everyone we could talk to is at home safe and

sound at least warm. >> thank you. and that's why several of these states basically said you can't be on the roads after 4:00 this afternoon for reasons like this. and so we'll talk to boston globe columnist about this unprecedented travel ban in the state of massachusetts by the governor there and also just the federal response. how prepared they are, what their biggest priorities and concerns are. we'll talk to her after the short break, but i want to leave you for now with the live pictures. cape cod, massachusetts, the winds, the storm, flooding, coastal flooding could be a huge problem. we'll talk about that as we cover this massive northeast blizzard live special on cnn. ew] ♪ many hot dogs are within you. try pepto-bismol to-go, it's the power of pepto, but it fits in your pocket. now tell the world daniel... of pepto-bismol to-go.

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this blizzard here has forced airlines to cancel thousands of flights. banned driving in massachusetts and connecticut. juliette is a journalist and has a lot of experience working for state and federal government. most recent post secretary for the department of homeland security. before we delve into your piece and this travel ban, i have to ask, where are you and how does it look where you are? >> we are inside. a lot of energy in the house, but we're doing okay and plan on staying here at least until tomorrow night. but it got very ominous and kind of freaky in the last two or three hours. it was romantic for a while, but now it's just a bad storm. >> the romance is over. >> the romance is over, yes, that's true. >> let me ask you about this. you write about this in the globe, this unprecedented travel ban. i said it this afternoon and the

governor, this is no joke. if you are caught after 4:00 -- >> he's right. i think people's response is he's overreacting, or the state is overreacting and why can't we go out in our cars? and one reason is to keep the streets clean so they can be prowed and people can get back to normal. but as we're seeing in long island right now, the main reason to do it is if you go out there and get stuck or your car gets in the snowplow or whatever, people are going to have to save you. and then that adds another level of danger. they could get hurt. so there's serious penalties for us being in cars right now after 4:00 p.m., including up to a year in jail. i don't think they'll do that. i think they are reserving that crime for, if i get into a car and someone has to save me and they get hurt. part of this is just to make it

pretty clear that you're not only putting yourself in danger and your family members who might be in the car, you're also putting the safety professionals who are going to have to rescue you. >> yeah, first responders, from what i understand. that was one of the big reasons why they want people off the roads. let me ask you this as we've been talking so much about the storm and people are saying things like this could be record-breaking. talking about the '78 storm or 2003. do you get the sense -- i don't know how long you've been in massachusetts, but do you get the sense that it felt different? >> i think it felt different because we haven't had one in a while. i've been back here and had lived here before i moved to d.c. so it was just people's memories fade about what a storm like this is. i think the recovery is going to be the biggest issue. how quickly can we get rid of the snow so that people can get back to normal? i think the governor's decision to put the travel ban has probably eased a lot of the stress on public safety and

allowed the plows to be out there. so we might see a quick recovery. part of this is we haven't seen a storm like this in a while with winds like this and how quickly it's come in. we just all have to re-learn the drill, which is essentially, stay put. we have plenty of notice and now it's a lot of patience and to be honest, a lot of tv. >> you write in your column, i saw a lot of people do a lot of stupid things during emergencies. i could never tell if it was arrogance, youth, or for a good laugh. it doesn't matter. excellent point. stay safe. boston globe columnist, we appreciate you calling in here. and a quick reminder, we're now getting certain things to start popping up, including some folks trapped on the long island expressway. want to let you know, we are making phone calls. we want to find out how many people are trapped, if help is on the way, when help gets on the way. we'll keep you posted on that. as we go to break, we're

covering this massive blizzard here. you can see the visibility of the manhattan skyline. can't see a heck of a lot. new york city, we're back right after this. [ male announcer ] at his current pace, bob will retire when he's 153, which would be fine if bob were a vampire. but he's not. ♪ he's an architect with two kids and a mortgage. luckily, he found someone who gave him a fresh perspective on his portfolio. and with some planning and effort, hopefully bob can retire at a more appropriate age. it's not rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. it's just common sense. trying to find a better job can likbe frustrating.gs, so at university of phoenix we're working with a growing list of almost two thousand corporate partners - companies like microsoft, american red cross and adobe -

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hi. want to take you live to ali velshi who has been standing alongside quite the surf and the wind and snow really picking up. he's in dennis port, if you know cape cod. this is the easternmost point of massachusetts. ali, we're in the worst of it right now. tell me how does it feel, as it's pelting you? >> reporter: well, i'm able to stand upright and look at you, not something i've been able to do for a long time. still pelting me. but we're getting gusts. probably get a couple as we're talking. talking about the power situation, when i last talked to you, we lost power and then it came on again. in the last two hours, the number of people without power has tripled from just over

130,000, to more than 500,000, of which more than 300,000 are in massachusetts alone. we have nantucket behind me and martha's vineyard. some kinds of power outages are self-mending because the electricity can automatically be rerouted through other transformers. but if you lose power because a line is down, that cannot be mended without a work crew. i saw something as i drove up here yesterday, coming up 95. i saw something they saw before hurricane sandy, convoy of work crews heading to the northeast, positioning themselves to be ready. so there are work crews ready to go. the national guard is ready to go. here 600 national guard have been activated. maybe it's a thousand active and 3,000 standing by. bottom line, it's not getting fixed tonight. if you lose power, if you have

not prepared yet, it's going to get cold and you're going to start fumbling around. so take it seriously. if you're enjoying watching this blizzard from home and you have not lost power, make sure that you prepare to lose power. fill the tub with hot water. get the flashlights, do you have blinkets? can you account for everybody around you? make sure you don't start your car in your garage to keep warm. this is where we have to intersperse the coverage of what's going on with the warning to make people are safe. we're below freezing in most of the northeast. the windchills are making it very, very cold. and as i said, brooke, as we started talking, we're going to start seeing gusts again. here we have them. the gusts are coming in now, we probably got 55, 60 miles an hour. that's what it feels like. you can see the surf behind me is starting to retreat. that's a good sign. you can go further east than i am. you can go to chatham, 30 miles to the east of me.

and then you get the northeast coast of massachusetts, still in some danger, but at this point, we're hoping we're in the worst of it and that it only gets better from here. but that doesn't mean we won't see more power outages through the course of the night. >> absolutely. and ali, we'll come back to you because i want to talk about these flickering lights. we'll come back to you at the top of the hour. for now, get shelter for the next ten minutes. as we go to break, let me give you a head's up. this is affecting basketball teams. a team spokesman for the san antonio spurs confirms to cnn sports that the team's travel plans, they were affected by the blizzard. the spurs, they played the pistons tonight in michigan. they were supposed to hop a plane and head to new york tonight after the game. yeah, that's not happening. so they'll be staying in detroit tonight and hopefully flying into new york early tomorrow afternoon. special coverage, northeast blizzard, after this. [ nurse ] i'm a hospice nurse.

britta olsen is my patient. i spend long hours with her checking her heart rate, administering her medication, and just making her comfortable. one night britta told me about a tradition in denmark, "when a person dies," she said, "someone must open the window so the soul can depart." i smiled and squeezed her hand. "not tonight, britta. not tonight." [ female announcer ] to nurses everywhere, thank you, from johnson & johnson. [ female announcer ] to nurses everywhere, all right that's a fifth-floor probleok.. not in my house! ha ha ha! ha ha ha! no no no! not today! ha ha ha!

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we've been getting lots of tweets. i'm tweeting @brooke cnn. this is from one of our

correspondents in the storm. this is a photograph in staten island, and so you see new york police vn. you see this christmas tree. it's just a reminder. listen, a lot of people, 40 million people were in the storm's path and the folks in staten island, they really suffered. because when you think of superstorm sandy, that was just in the end of october. here they are again, so many of them, don't even have roofs over their heads, let alone power and heat. so just keep staten island and the folks really who were hit so hard from sandy, in your thoughts and we'll check in throughout the night in different parts of staten island, the region here. i want to talk about travel. because it's been banned in two states, massachusetts, and connecticut. people paid attention to that. in greenwich, connecticut tonight, the only souls in sight are ashley ban field and the driver of a snowplow. watch. >> it is quiet in this area. people are really heeding the

travel ban. 4:00 today, the governor said everybody off the road and that's that. we're one of the four states in the state of emergency. i want you to see this beautiful area looks like on a friday night. just one plow. that's what you see. the contractors have been coming down the street, trying to keep up with the snow. this is how we wish the snow at cnn. it's the president's ruler. i've been watching it all day. i go to the same spot so it's always accurate. we are officially just getting beyond polk. that's where we are now. but you can bet your bottom dollar, i think we'll be up to cleveland tonight. >> ashley ban field with her presidents ruler. in rhode island, the snow is more than a foot deep and it will continue falling for the next several hours. poppy harlow has been in the heart of providence, rhode island, which is really in a virtual lockdown. >> reporter: there's a

restaurant, can't even see it anymore. that's the change we've had in the last hour. the pellets that ali and jason are feeling are coming right at us. there goes my hat. i'm sure cnn will give me another one. it's whiteout conditions here. it's 34 degrees and that's the huge problem. that's why you have 87,000 customers in rhode island alone without power. because the snow is building up on the power lines. it's bringing them down. we just talked to the mayor's representative. he told us in providence alone, they've had 60 calls of downed trees or downed power lines. they have 120 vehicles on the road alone here in providence. they closed the entire i-95 corridor down. haven't done that since the great blizzard of '78. they made it at 5:00, illegal for any cars to be on the road. this is why. we're standing in the center of providence, downtown, complete whiteout. it's going to be like this at least through 6:00 a.m.

>> poppy harlow in providence, rhode island. we're now getting word on a death in new york as the blizzard pounds northeast. so it's now officially a fatal storm. more on that breaking news next.

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